Finished: Valkyria Chronicles

Some scattered thoughts.

Overall, the story was very well played, alternating heady realities and light-hearted JRPG fare. While the protagonists had a tendency towards preachiness early on, dialogue smoothed out as the game progressed and the real bulk of the plot began to come into play (either that or I simply got used to it).

The voice acting, often the bane of a translated release, is outstanding in Valkyria Chronicles. There are a couple weak spots — I’m looking at you Hans — but for such a wide cast of characters with dialogue, the quality is top notch. The members of Squad 7 (including the entire potential roster) each have unique personalities and mannerisms, and I felt myself honestly concerned with every casualty, especially those that led to the permanent death of a squad member in my campaign (RIP Ted and Nadine).

Add in the individual character designs, relationships, and biographies, and it becomes obvious that the folks at Sega Overworks (the Skies of Arcadia team) put a lot of care into crafting these guys.

Hitoshi Sakimoto, known for the soundtracks of two other notable strategy rpgs, wrote the score. Those Who Succeeded and Empty Loneliness are personal favorites from the collection.

Gameplay is solid throughout, and the mechanics were enjoyable enough that even the side missions, using variations of the basic ruleset, were a blast to play through. There are some balance concerns, most notably around the Scout class, but if you can restrict yourself from abusing your units (heh), the challenge is there from beginning to end.

Some interesting UI choices were made, with between-mission content split into two separate and distinct areas: Book Mode, and Headquarters. I’d love to see the internal progression of their design… I get the feeling that there were different teams involved for each, and some sort of development wall was hit (maybe resources, staff, time, whatever), as a few of the design decisions (go here, go there, go here, go there) are a bit clumsy. Still, the whole thing isn’t too unwieldy once you get the hang of it, and there’s always plenty to do (I’d generally reserve an extra 10 minutes at the end of a game session for housekeeping).

Total time invested was roughly 40 hours. In some games, I’ll often find myself almost grinding through to the end of a longer campaign, just to see out the storyline or for the sense of completion, but Valkyria Chronicles was enjoyable from start to finish. While I’ve moved on to other titles in the play list for now, I’ll eventually purchase the downloadable content and revisit the game. Maybe I’ll watch the anime, too.

Pick this one up. Valkyria Chronicles is a highlight of the current generation, and will be the sort of title folks bring up when reminiscing about the good ol’ gaming days of the late 2000s.

Plus/Minus:
+ Beautiful hand-drawn art style.
+ Impressed by the time dedicated to creating unique and interesting characters.
+ Mostly excellent voice work.
+ Solid mix of missions within the basic mechanics.
+ Nice to see the realities of war brought into what is often a very fanciful game type.

- Scouts were unnecessarily overpowered in the late game.
- Tired and cliche “boss battle” ending.

Final grade: A

link love 06-26-09

Michael Abbott speaks kindly of Afrika, the photo safari simulator by Rhino Games arriving stateside this summer.

How High Can You Get? Killing the Killscreen by Donkeying with Kong.

Not sure how I completely missed this… EA’s The Saboteur looks fantastic! Go watch the E3 trailer.

The Museum of Soviet Arcade Machines. Hmm, a comparison of arcade trends in different regions of the world would make for an interesting article. [via Arcade Heroes]

Evo 2009, July 17-19th

Don’t forget, kids, the Evo 2009 Championships are in less than a month!

Hosted at Rio Las Vegas and taking place July 17-19th, you don’t need to be a tournament participant to spectate, and there’s a ton of gaming to be had in the free-to-all BYOC area. While the Madonnas won’t be ready in time, I may bring along the Divers Dreamcast and Neo-Geo cabinet.

For an idea of what to expect, check out the photos from last year.

Madonnas come home.

Picked these up locally today: two Irem Madonnas, Japanese candy cabs from the late 1980s. They look to be in fairly rough shape, but neither is dented or damaged, so they should be one of the easier restoration projects on deck.

Compared to other candy cabs, there’s relatively little information about these online. Guess not too many of em made it over to the States. Next step is tracking down a couple decent 25in monitors.

link love 06-12-09

Looking forward to a weekend of beer, tools, sandpaper, and paint. Oh, and a date with my wife.

TILT: The Battle to Save Pinball, the fascinating story behind Pinball 2000, is now available on both iTunes and Netflix. You can buy the dvd, too.

The Making Of: Asteroids. Keep doing these stories, Edge! [via Arcade Heroes]

Scribblenauts: How a Nobody Game Became the Talk of This Year’s E3.

And finally, a Harvard psychiatrist explains Zombie Neurobiology.

Las Vegas classic movie screenings

Here’s the combined schedule of upcoming retro screenings at Tropicana Cinemas and Aliante Station. Big thanks to Mr. Kindred for compiling the list, I’ll update these as more dates become available.

June
Monday, June 8 – Singin’ In The Rain – Aliante 6:30 PM ($5)
Wednesday, June 10 – The Birds – Trop 7:30 PM ($8)
Monday, June 15 – Rebel Without A Cause – Aliante 6:30 PM ($5)
Wednesday, June 17 – Wet Hot American Summer – Trop 7:30 PM ($8)
Monday, June 22 – Breakfast At Tiffany’s – Aliante 6:30 PM ($5)
Wednesday, June 24 – Jurassic Park – Trop 7:30 PM ($8)
Monday, June 29 – Some Like It Hot – Aliante 6:30 PM ($5)

July
Wednesday, July 1 – Breakfast At Tiffany’s – Trop 7:30 PM ($8)
Monday, July 6 – Mary Poppins – Aliante 6:30 PM ($5)
Wednesday, July 8 – Top Gun – Trop 7:30 PM ($8)
Monday, July 13 – Casablanca – Aliante 6:30 PM ($5)
Wednesday, July 15 – Grease – Trop 7:30 PM ($8)
Wednesday, July 22 – Temple of Doom – Trop 7:30 PM ($8)
Wednesday, July 29 – 2001 – Trop 7:30 PM ($8)

August
Wednesday, August 5 – Pink Floyd: The Wall – Trop 7:30 PM ($8)
Wednesday, August 12 – Willy Wonka – Trop 7:30 PM ($8)
Wednesday, August 19 – Blazing Saddles – Trop 7:30 PM ($8)
Wednesday, August 26 – Enter the Dragon – Trop 7:30 PM ($8)

September
Wednesday, September 2 – The Fifth Element – Trop 7:30 PM ($8)
Wednesday, September 9 – Pulp Fiction – Trop 7:30 PM ($8)
Wednesday, September 16 – Reservoir Dogs – Trop 7:30 PM ($8)
Wednesday, September 23 – Back To The Future – Trop 7:30 PM ($8)
Wednesday, September 30 – Jaws – Trop 7:30 PM ($8)

October
Wednesday, October 7 – The Exorcist – Trop 7:30 PM ($8)
Wednesday, October 14 – Muppet Movie – Trop 7:30 PM ($8)
Wednesday, October 21 – Interview with a Vampire – Trop 7:30 PM ($8)

There’s a lot here, go see an old movie.

MC restoration: the what not to do post.

Okay, art time. The creases were especially fun to deal with, and — exacerbating the issues below — the arcadeshop sideart was thinner than the exceptional quality stuff that Phoenix Arcade puts out.

A little paint and some light sanding on mounting brackets and exposed bolts makes a world of difference.

I mentioned this part in the last post, but here it is in more detail. As the original side art was applied bare and the surface (minus areas I patched) still appeared to be in good shape, I figured I could get away with applying the new side art the same way. Unfortunately, the process of laying and lifting the art pulled up tiny bits of particulate, marring the smooth surface. Here’s a closeup of the results in the sunlight:

Hot tip! Never skimp on surface preparation. Seriously. Annoying lesson to learn after spending so much time cleaning up the rest of the cabinet. A couple coats of primer and a good sanding would’ve gone a long way.

Speaking of screw ups, I managed to stretch out the front of the control panel overlay as I was lifting it to remove an air pocket, resulting in some noticeable creases. I should’ve just used a pin. Sigh.

Overall, the cabinet does look a bit better now that everything has settled, especially when it’s not being hit with direct light.

Monitor, harness, coin door, and boards installed… it powers up (and makes the low wah wah wah sound), so that’s a start! Time to troubleshoot the guts.

link love 06-02-09

It’s E3 week! Next week is WWDC week! Productivity hammered!

Pixelvixen707 talks Milo, or more interestingly, an imaginary blogger writes about an imaginary friend.

From Leigh Alexander, the chiptunes band that just might break through.

Miss any of the big three press conferences? Offworld points out the important bits from Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony. My personal favorites from each are Shadow Complex, New Super Mario Wii, and The Last Guardian.

Missile Command restoration

Okay, time to get back into gear and finish up the Missile Command cabinet restoration. Last time I posted about it, I’d just rebuilt and polished the Trakball. Here’s what’s happened since then.

Unlike the TRON, the original Missile Command sideart peeled right off, albeit in many little pieces. I love how the artwork has baked into the cabinet — it looks neat, and helped with aligning the new art just right, too.

The cabinet was mostly solid, with the typical beat up edges and corners. A bit of bondo and a lot of sanding cleaned up most of the damage.

The original lower wood piece had been through hell, so I used it as a basic template and made a replacement.

Post paint and prep work. In hindsight, I really should’ve put more time into the sides of the cabinet. I figured that since the original side art was placed on bare wood, and since the wood was apparently in good shape, that I could get away with doing the same with the reproduction artwork. Unfortunately, every time I had to lift the side art during placement, it’d pull up miniscule bits of wood, marring the smooth surface. A proper coat of paint or two would’ve prevented that.

The Missile Command side art sat rolled up in a shipping box through spring, so, much to the annoyance of my wife, I flattened it out over a couple of weeks on the dining room table. Note the creases, they were especially fun to work out during application.

Talking Classics Neo Geo

He’s done six episodes so far, watch the rest here.